By Harvey Silverman, Contributor, Golf Business | Silverback Golf Marketing
The hairs on the collective necks of golf industry people stood on end watching the conclusion of last week’s Travelers Championship on CBS. As leaders Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler reached the pivotal 18th green, several protestors broke through the lines, waving colored smoke devices and dropping an unknown powder on the green.
If You Know, You Know (I.Y.K.Y.K.), and we all thought we did. We thought, here comes the environmental lunatic fringe to tell the world what a horrible sport golf was because of the damage it does to the earth, water, and green space reserved for the rich.
Boy, were we wrong. The group responsible for Scottie Scheffler thinking “What have I done now?” as security and police swarmed the green were there to let the golf world know – golfers and fans – that our sport and game are at risk of extinction because of climate change.
In fact, the group’s name is “Extinction Rebellion.” It issued this statement:
“Golf, more than other events, is heavily reliant on good weather. Golf fans should therefore understand better than most the need for strong, immediate climate action.”
Extinction Rebellion is active in 89 countries with 971 groups. It states on its website: “Life on Earth is in crisis. Our climate is changing faster than scientists predicted, and the stakes are high. Biodiversity loss. Crop failure. Social and ecological collapse. Mass extinction. We are running out of time, and our governments have failed to act. Extinction Rebellion was formed to fix this.”
And, “We have a moral duty to take action – whatever our politics.”
Its approach is to use non-violent but disruptive civil disobedience to organize a rebellion of change. Extinction Rebellion’s appearance at the Travelers was to alert and recruit golfers to their cause in front of thousands of fans there and watching on CBS.
I’m sure there are climate change deniers in our industry, maybe some who’ve opened this article and already trashed it. But the science, the facts, and the evidence are mounting. Believe it or not, every golf course in this country faces climate threats, be it excessive heat or rain, destructive storms, drought, rising sea levels, wildfires, and more. They’re coming at us more frequently and with more ferocity.
We may not cozy up to Extinction Rebellion’s approach or methods, but it is asking golf to help save itself and, with it, the planet. Their message, a warning, was clearly displayed on their shirts, “No golf on a dead planet.”